
Member Reviews

Four years from now – just think about that for a minute. Four years from right NOW. The world is on the brink of World War III.
And that’s not necessarily the most frightening part of the story!
The fears and frights and scares and outright terrors are layered in this OMG DEBUT novel, to the point where the reader’s heart is pounding alongside all the rest of the characters. I say ‘rest’ of the characters because frankly, if this is that close then we’re already in it and it’s already all of us.
But those layers of fear may start with just thinking about how close this might be, but the part of the story that grabs the reader by the throat and doesn’t let go is the part that happens far, far away, in the remotest place on Earth.
Over an entirely too short 72 hours in the midst of the long Antarctic winter, the tiny overwinter crew at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is reduced from 41 scientists, technicians and support crew to just FIVE scarred and scared survivors after the station is invaded.
In the midst of the Third World War that is happening in the world at large, the crew at the U.S. controlled South Pole fears that the vehicle heading their way from the Chinese-controlled Dome A is the vanguard of that invasion.
And it is – but not in the way that anyone thinks. It’s not the three starving Chinese men who are the threat – it’s the dead man in the back, the one who dashed himself against the walls until he died.
He had a passenger. (Technically, the dead man had a host of passengers.) In the best SF horror thriller tradition, those passengers, a lab experiment gone much too successfully and entirely too wrong, have plans of their own.
Escape Rating A+: There are so many ways to think/talk/write about Symbiote – and they ALL work. The whole thing was a WOW. (Admittedly, a WOW I had to stop reading at 1 am, even though I had less than an hour left. I could have finished. And I’d probably have been awake for the rest of the night as a result. It’s that kind of WOW.)
The horrors, as I said, are layered. There’s the World War III aspect, which is touched on just enough to give the reader the shivers, which then gets subsumed in all the other horrors, only to rear its ugly head again at the end.
Underneath the World War III scares and the political maneuverings that go with it is the horror so brilliantly pointed out in the first Jurassic Park movie, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” The results are not actually dissimilar, although part of the horror leans a bit on another famous, and much older quote from Walt Kelly’s Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
One of the biggest, and most in the moment layers of the horrors in Symbiote is very definitely the human equation.
The small crew of overwinter “polies” is, as they are every year, alternately hard working and bored, often introverted but stuck in the enforced intimacy of a VERY TINY small town, isolated from the whole entire rest of the world and quite possibly just a bit – or a lot – cracked in one way or another.
There’s also a deep, resentful divide between the scientists – the ‘beakers’, and the techs and support crew – the ‘loggers’. On top of that there’s a huge gender imbalance, three men for every woman. It’s a pressure cooker on multiple axes and the stew gets aside to cook for a nine-month season. It’s not really a surprise that it boils over at the best of times – which this particular overwinter absolutely is not.
In other words, the story in Symbiote had more than enough stress factors to go to the ‘dark side’ from the human parts of the equation alone. And to some extent those human factors continue to drive events even after not all the humans are exactly still or just merely human.
And it’s those human factors that give the story its compulsive, breakneck pace. Because it’s the humans that we care about – and we do. We absolutely do. From the beginning, when it just seems like the scares come from humans just being human and some of them being shitty humans, we already have our hero, our sidekicks and most definitely our villains.
As the snow gets deeper and the shit gets WAY more complicated, so do the motivations of ALL the players – and the reader gets even more invested as each character learns something new and shitty about themselves – and stands or folds under the weight of that knowledge.
I got so caught up in this story I barely stopped to sleep while I still could. When I finished, I found the ending cathartic enough – and yet still open. Because it reads like this chapter may be done, but there is plenty of story yet to come.
As there should be. Because the survivors have merely managed to survive the horror they faced in their isolated base. The huge, horrifying issues that brought this mess to their snowy doorstep are out in the wider world – and have yet to be addressed. Even though one of those messes already clearly has plans to address them.

Thank you to Angry Robot Books and Michael Nayak for this ARC.
Imagine "The Thing" colliding with "The Walking Dead," and you get this icy, bone-chilling sci-fi thriller that keeps you turning pages late into the night 🥶. The plot centers on a terrifying biological contagion that spreads rapidly among scientists and military personnel stationed at the South Pole. What follows is a relentless mix of body horror, intense violence, and nail-biting action sequences that pull you into a desperate fight for survival.
One of the book’s strongest elements is its portrayal of isolation and paranoia — the sheer cold and the vast emptiness of the Antarctic setting only heighten the claustrophobic tension ❄️.
The POV structure takes a little time to adjust to, as there are several characters to keep track of. However, as the body count starts rising (and it definitely rises 💀), the plot becomes more streamlined and gripping. Each death raises the stakes, making survival feel more desperate and thrilling.
If you love stories that blend edge-of-your-seat action 🎢, disturbing body horror 🧬, and the eerie dread of isolation, this book will absolutely hit the mark. Just be prepared to sleep with the lights on after finishing it! 😱

3.5 stars rounded up.
Symbiote is a sci-fi thriller that wastes little time getting down to business, with an action packed opening that keeps the tension and the threat constant throughout the novel. It feels like a definite homage to John Carpenter’s The Thing, with plenty of the horror coming from the enemies hidden in plain sight, and creating a strong sense of paranoia among the crew. Bonus points for the author writing the majority of the book actually at an Antarctic research station!
The story gets straight down to business in the first few chapters, as a deadly new parasite that thrives in cold climates is accidentally introduced to the base, and rapidly starts decimating the population. The story jumps frequently between different perspectives, so you can watch the panic slowly spread across the camp, with no one character having the whole picture at first. There’s even a few chapters from the perspective of the infected individuals, that really bring the horror elements to life. I’ll admit that I formed little connection to the majority of POV characters in Symbiote, as most of them don’t get a lot (or any) character development. Given the rapidly increasing body count though, the lack of connection is probably for the best! The book does a very good job at distinguishing a huge cast of researchers and maintenance staff, though it fell down a little in the final third where I found lots of the surviving crew started to blur into one another.
I personally feel Symbiote does a much better job at being a thriller novel than being a science fiction one. There’s a constant action film vibe running throughout, with tension coming from the surviving characters not understanding the threat, then not knowing who to trust. The nature of the threat they face continues to chop and change too, keeping the story fresh and the tension high. The science frankly goes a little wild in Symbiote; if you’re able to suspend belief in a lot of questionable scientific practices for the sake of a good thriller, then this won’t be a problem. The science of the parasitic enemy is about as crazy as the theories and tests thought up by the science team, which end up being correct surprisingly often. Thank you to Angry Robot and to NetGalley for an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review!

Symbiote is such a cool story (pun not intended, but I'm going to go ahead and keep it). I mean, Antarctica is a fascinating setting regardless, but when you take into the account that the author has actual firsthand knowledge that makes this probably the most authentic fiction book possible, it's downright mesmerizing. I've read a few "unearthed frozen germ" type books, but this one has been my favorite, and I think the author's experience is a huge reason why. Because look- you and I cannot really put ourselves in the shoes of the folks at the South Pole. We could try, sure, and that is the fun of reading, but actually living the psychology of being so sequestered from the rest of humanity really packs a punch here in terms of characterization and emotional evocativity.
I was, at first, bummed that we didn't learn more about what was happening elsewhere in the world, since it is a plot point. But then, I found out there is more planned for this world and so that became much less of an issue. I will also say that at first I had a bit of trouble connecting with the characters, but that started to change midway through the book. Obviously, the stakes are huge, because it is clear from the start that this parasitic entity isn't just going to wreak havoc in Antarctica and then burrow back into the snow for a hibernation. No, this has the potential to disrupt the world at large, and at the very least, mess up the entire continent beyond recognition.
My only qualm is that I didn't wholly love some of the more action-driven parts where we actually get to hear from the parasite, in a way. Funny enough, this is the part that most other reviewers seem to enjoy the most, so take my opinion with a grain of salt! I am glad that we did get to understand more of how the parasite worked, I just maybe would have wanted a little less once we did know what we were dealing with. The atmosphere was also on point, which I suppose makes sense since the author lived it, but he did a great job translating it to paper, too.
Bottom Line: Very atmospheric and exciting, I look forward to whatever comes next!

Symbiote by Michael Nayak
Whispy vapors escaped my mouth as I prepared for my daily hike. Icy winds slashed at my unprotected eyes, and my tongue tasted the coastal sea salt trapped in the air. I imagined being hired by the government to live on an Antarctic station. Vast and expansive knowledge permeates through the South Pole snowdrifted soil, as the people known as “Polies” provide valuable information to the American intelligence community. The harshness of the environment is exposed to the novel's readers. However, a feeling of calm and peace accompanies this seclusion. A startling meeting with three Chinese scientists, one of whom is found deceased in the truck bed with unimaginable wounds, instigates an undying need for answers. Why would the Chinese risk their lives to travel this far and vacate their home base?
Death by parasitic disease, surely it must be. Michael Nayak dangles the answer like a carrot teasing an emaciated horse. My antennae are working rhythmically in unison, providing, sensing, and, to the best of my ability, providing an answer that makes sense. For that is all I have, a hunch. The solution is far more dire than I first predicted, one that has more permanent and global implications. Nayak’s ability to extricate a sense of hopelessness from the protagonists helped bring a terrifying reading experience. Simply invoking fear would not do, as my skin stung as if on the onset of hypothermia.
Miscellaneous moving parts haunt the tale. There are an abundance of characters residing within the compound, many of which have their seasonal flings. I tried to remember who was hooking up with whom but this only lent to more confusion on my behalf. Somehow these romances seemed significant to the story. Creating natural alliances and enemies alike played as much a crucial role as the sub-zero temperatures outside. I suppose there is some truth in that: people turning against their neighbor in the name of survival. I am just not sure I would have gone to this length to highlight those relationships. There were just too many, in my opinion, and it started to spoil my fun within the world. Feeling somewhat bogged down towards the middle, my determination paid off as an increase in action stoked the fire causing a relentless stream of unrest and intensity to seep through the cracked veins of ice.
All in all, I had a good time with the “Polies,” one I will remember for it’s intense environment, be that of a blistering chill or hot sauna, or individuals clinging to lifelines as long as humanly possible. The plot struck me as unique, and as the author divulged more information, I was left gobsmacked on more than a few occasions. Questions arose about symbiosis, and parasites riddled my fragile cranium. An enemy working in tandem with a host? Could this really happen? I have no clue, but I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.
I am giving this 3.25 stars and rounding down to 3 stars.
Many thanks to Angry Robot for the ARC through Netgalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion.

Thank you to Angry Robot Books for the ARC! Here are my thoughts.
A group of American scientists are researching at the South Pole. A trick of Chinese scientists arrives, but one of the men in their truck is dead. Soon the scientists are facing their worst fear as a parasite begins taking over. Can the scientists study and learn and prevent their death, or is the parasite just too quick for them?
This book was the perfect cold weather book to read. We were facing temperatures that felt around -30C. It’s not quite the temps these characters had to face, but I felt for them. The elements felt like an extra character in this novel, as the harsh cold was so isolating and heavily impacted the characters’ ability to make decisions. It also played a huge part with the parasite.
I worked in microbiology for about 12 years and am currently writing my thesis on a micro project, so any horror/sci fi novel that uses microbiology makes me happy. I try my best to not focus too much on the actual scientific fact and allow myself to have fun with the disbelief. Symbiote was very well researched and yes some of the scenarios are a little farfetched but that’s what makes it a fun horror read.
The characters are vast and there are some readers will love and some they will hate. They all felt human though, living a very complicated and unique job experience. Overall, I enjoyed this. Reading a little about the author’s background also shed some light on why this book felt so real and well researched. I would pick up another book by Nayak, as I love sci-fi and horror and he balanced the two beautifully.

As soon as I read the synopsis I knew I had to request this ARC. It did not disappoint! The storyline was familiar, but a classic for a reason so I have no complaints. It was well developed, great atmosphere and storyline development, it felt well researched/informed, and I would highly recommend it.

Complete isolation and a bone-chilling, parasitic epidemic - sign me up! I do believe relating this book to The Walking Dead was a bit far-fetched and misleading, but overall, I still really enjoyed this sci-fi thriller. I know it will continue to haunt my thoughts for weeks to come.
Thank you to Angry Robot Books, NetGalley, and Michael Nayak for sending me this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Michael Nayak's Symbiote is a chilling and propulsive sci-fi thriller that immediately reminds of the tense atmosphere of John Carpenter's The Thing, but with a modern sin for new audiences. Set against the backdrop of a raging World War III, the story unfolds in a claustrophobic Antarctic research outpost, where the arrival of a Chinese team with a mysterious corpse unleashes a terrifying parasitic entity. Nayak builds suspense as the isolated crew faces not only the monstrous threat but also the potential for a geopolitical crisis. The narrative is packed with cinematic gore and visceral descriptions of the parasite's gruesome effects, making for a gripping read. Beyond the horror, Symbiote explores the tense dynamics and of this isolated community filled with already damaged and volatile characters. The parasite's ability to trigger violence and establish a strange symbiotic telepathy adds a fascinating and disturbing dimension to the story. Nayak's authentic details about life in Antarctica further enhance the sense of realism and isolation, making Symbiote a truly immersive read. Highly recommended for fans of horror, sci-fi thrillers, and anyone who enjoys a good dose of Antarctic chill.

I was very excited to start reading this one. It is winter and I love cold weather horror stories, but very quickly I gave up. I thought it was shorter than it was so I tried to push on, but at a third of the way through I thought okay, I have had enough.
While reading this I kept thinking that a man definitely wrote it. The way the men and women are described was definitely a man writing. Like the dudes and their dicks and them thinking about sex was a huge turnoff for me. It is why I eventually stopped reading. I don't need to read about these awful men and how they objectify the women so much. Really didn't care what happened to anyone so why keep reading?

Everything about this should have been enjoyable and fun. Its not entirely ground breaking but hits the right spot in terms of sci-fi tropes, integrating geopolitics and horror. Be it "The Thing" mixed with isolated horror with new pathogens, etc., the narration treats characters (there are plenty of them) with a level of disregard that takes away enjoyment of reading.
<i>Thank you to Netgalley and Angry Robot for providing me with a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Fun little sci fi horror thriller set at the South Pole. I think it’s my first book I’ve read that is set there and Nayak does a great job with the setting. He mentions in the acknowledgements he spent a year though and loved it and it shows. I’m American and a southeastern one at that so I can’t say I’ve experienced any extreme cold weather. So it was fascinating to see the different protocols in place for safety and health.
Symbiote has a LARGE cast of characters and at time it was hard to keep everyone’s various connections in check. This coupled with the fact there is a fair amount of sex/love triangles within the plot. They’re absolutely not integral to the book but I wouldn’t consider it overly raunchy. Considering Nayak has spent some time in Antarctica I find it likely that spending this much time in close quarters with a small amount of people could lead into some Love Island-ish drama. Overall, the extensive cast lead to some confusion within the plot as the story continued to evolve but it helped having a digital edition where I could search by name to aid recollection. I think this would’ve been more of a struggle with a physical copy.
Symbiote doesn’t have the most unique storyline (rampant infection that changes people, isolation, government being shady, etc etc) but I still found it well written and entertaining. It does have some gory scenes but nothing too over the top.
Symbiote follows a team in Antarctica in winter of 2028 as a war between the heavy hitters rages around the world. When a small group of Chinese researchers unexpectedly head into the National Science Foundation’s area things get pretty bad. It does feel a bit cinematic at times but the pacing is solid and the story was definitely entertaining. I would definitely love to check out more work by Nayak in the future.

4.5 stars.
If being isolated in Antarctic wasn’t tough enough everyone at the Pole is about to find it tougher to survive.
Just when you think it’s awful. It’s gets so much worse.
This book is 3rd person multi POV and being in the minds of the infected was an interesting side of things I quite enjoyed.
I really had trouble putting this down.
The thrills were thrilling. The horror was horroring. (That’s a word a swear)
I wondered how much of the general (pre infection) stuff was actually true but apparently the author is a “Polie”. It sounds like a scandalous place lol
Absolutely will recommend to those who like the thrills, the infectious diseases, the dystopianness

I rarely find a book that is genuinely scary and of horrific. But Symbiote served up in spades. I thoroughly enjoyed it and lapped it up. I did find the telepathic dialogue a bit puzzling and hard to follow at first. I personally might have preferred brackets or even a different font - mono-spaced perhaps.
Many interesting insights into what must be a very strange existence on the bottom of the world.

I picked up Symbiote by Michael Nayak in the hope that it would bring something new to the Sci Fi, Horror genre, it promised ‘Contagion meets The Walking Dead’ and as a reader rather than a viewer (who hides behind a cushion a lot!) I was like count me in…I need this in my reading world.
The plot is set in the near future amidst a world at war – Sino-American War, and it located in a research centre at the South Pole. The Antarctic winter has just begun, and the resident American researchers find themselves alone in their research hub with a rogue stranded group of Chinese scientists after a bizarre accident.
What follows on from this is the emergence of a deadly bacterial infection that the Chinese scientists inadvertently share with the American group and the plot transitions into a horror fest that takes on body snatcher, alien tropes as the researchers find themselves living in a paranoid state of fear of infection/parasite horrow scenarios.
Whilst Symbiote brings this mixture of genres together in a fast paced plot that pulls you along to the conclusion of the story, I was a little disappointed that for me it didn’t bring anything new to the genre. The story itself is well-paced and the characters are well written, with strong backstories, but it must be said the vast majority of the characters are truly despicable, and the focus on sex and it’s undercurrent throughout the story, was uncomfortable for me.
The research and depth of detail that went into this work was admirable and accurate. I admire the work that went into that but, I didn’t find myself rooting for any of the characters and I just didn’t love this book. Saying that if you are a true fan of Sci Fi/Horror, and have loved The Walking Dead, Contagion, 28 Days Later, then this is most definitely the read for you, and there’s no question that this would meet all the criteria for great Cinema horror fodder!
Thank you Angry Robot and NetGalley for the arc of Symbiote by Michael Nayak in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Combing all the suspense and thrill of Last of Us with the wonderful plotting and deep mystery of the most recent season of Tue Detective, this thriller kept me up far too late because I had to read just a few more pages! I will be recommending this to so many library patrons and if I have my way, I'll be getting it onto the Book Club list as well.

thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review! <3
’All fights for survival were fights to the death’
Symbiote claims to be ‘Contagion meets The Walking Dead’, and as a fan of Contagion and a die-hard supporter of The Walking Dead, a series that defined my childhood, I was immediately sold.
In reality, this is 28 Days Later meets a poor man’s The Thing.
Nayak creates something with potential, but doesn’t create something unique. This story has been told before, but I don’t entirely think it shouldn’t be told again, and for the most part I enjoyed this book. The writing was acceptable, in parts reminiscent of Clay McLeod Chapman (although not quite as good), and pacing effective. The characters, while nothing special, carried the story somewhat well, particularly Ben, Siri and Dr Wei. The sense of dread that Nayak built up was certainly effective, and the pay-offs of each infection and death worked. However, I was pretty confused with the tone this story took. It wasn’t gory enough to be a slasher or body-horror, there wasn’t enough hard-science to truly commit to the sci-fi plot, and the random outbursts of romance and sex scenes were strange and killed any tension the story had. I think there was far too much being attempted at once and, for me, it detracted from the most interesting part - the symbiote itself.
I’m a massive fan of disease / infection / parasite horror, and that’s probably why I could sort of forgive things I didn’t like about this book. The symbiote was undeniably threatening, and the hosts it infected were sufficiently creepy and dangerous. This, unfortunately, was slightly ruined by the downright stupid mistakes some of the characters made. For the first 45% of the book I was impressed by the intelligent and dare I say realistic decisions the non-infected people were making. But, in what I can only assume was an attempt to further the stakes and story, these incredibly educated scientists and technicians started making incredibly ridiculous decisions, that completely contrasted statements and choices they’d made not even two chapters earlier. There’s no bigger disappointment in horror, than stupid characters.
Overall, Symbiote gets 3/5 stars. The setting was wonderful, but I just couldn’t get over certain character actions or the stilted tonal shifts.

While I feel the idea here can be a solid thriller, I had to DNF due to the sex and the lack of characters that I cared about at all.
Note: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Symbiote mixes two genres together, horror and sci-fi and gives us a fast paced book about the researchers/workers in Antarctica that are exposed to a parasitic entity that thrives in the cold. This novel throws out The Walking Dead vibes left, right and centre and if you're a fan of those types of TV shows/movies/books then you will really enjoy the one.
I felt that it was written well and knew how to capture its audience, I had mixed feelings when it came to the characters though, I felt the male characters were created exceptionally well, their back stories carved out really well with a touch of realism to them, the female characters however I felt they were created flat, they didn't have the same creativeness to them as their male counterparts. The undercurrent of the sex throughout the novel had my red flags peaking, I'm no stranger to sex in novels but I felt this borderlines abuse at times.
However all that aside the plotline played out really well and the pacing really made it all play out well, the premise of the novel was a great one and the setting really created the horror vibes. The author really did well with his research creating this novel and as I said a lot of readers will love this read.

I got 50 pages in, went to check the reviews to see if the weirdly crude sex stuff continues and apparently it does so I am out. It's disappointing. I was into the idea of a South Pole thriller. I was really interested in the parasite/biological weapon angle. Sadly, all any of these characters want to talk about is hate fucking each other (at best; sexual assault at worst), and it's not interesting at all. If you want the end of the world to feel tense, don't set things up so I'm rooting for everyone to die ASAP because they're so awful.